Premier League and Grand Prix champion Jonny Clayton (Outright 9/2) booked his place in the last 16 of the Grand Slam of Darts on Tuesday night with a 5-4 win against Mervyn King.
The 37-year-old Welshman has picked up four TV titles this season and was in good form once again versus the experienced King.
With Bradley Brooks defeating Rusty-Jake Rodriguez 5-3 in the other Group B contest earlier, King needed to win 5-1 or better against The Ferret to progress.
Clayton secured the two legs he needed early on and then took advantage of some sloppy darts from King to record a 5-4 win with a 99 average.
He will face Northern Ireland rookie Nathan Rafferty in the last 16 after he stunned Krzysztof Ratajski 5-4 in a straight shootout.
The Polish Eagle was well-fancied to advance through to the next stage but Rafferty, at the Grand Slam by virtue of his form on the Development Tour, pinned a 67 checkout after his opponent missed several match darts.
Rowby-John Rodriguez won Monday’s other win-or-bust clash with a very impressive 5-1 win against former BDO World Champion Stephen Bunting while a 5-2 win for James Wade over Rob Cross saw both progress at the expense of Jim Williams.
World champion Gerwyn Price (Outright 7/2) finished top of Group A but was beaten by already-eliminated German Martin Schindler.
On Tuesday, the headline clash comes last as double world champion Gary Anderson faces former Grand Slam winner Raymond van Barneveld (Match betting – Anderson 4/5, Van Barneveld 21/20).
Anderson easily beat youngster Joe Davis in his first match but a loss to Michael Smith means he must beat Barney to continue.
The Dutchman, who made his comeback to the tour this year after previously retiring, won the tournament in 2012 and will hope to summon that experience again.
Michael Van Gerwen needs a win against World Cup winner John Henderson (Match betting – Van Gerwen 1/6, Henderson 4/1) in Group G to confirm his place in the last 16 as does defending champion Jose De Sousa who faces UK Open runner up Luke Humphries (Match betting – De Sousa 4/6, Humphries 6/5).
Fallon Sherrock, who recorded the highest-televised average for a female player when whitewashing Mike De Decker on Sunday, could also get through to the last 16 as she faces already-qualified Gabriel Clemens (Match betting – Clemens 2/5, Sherrock 15/8).
However, the scale of her task will depend on the result between world number two Peter Wright and De Decker (Match betting – Wright 2/9, De Decker 16/5) earlier.
Grand Slam of Darts Betting Odds.